While industrial resource developments continue to put at risk our natural and cultural significance, people across Australia are standing their ground for nature.

Interview with Director/Producer Mark Pearce

Congratulations! Why did you make your film?

I’m constantly trying to align my filmmaking career with my core passions and two things I’m very passionate about is nature and helping people who need it most. Hardly hearing a peep out of the mainstream media about what’s going on in beautiful places fueled my desire as a media maker to take on responsibility and start raising public awareness to help permeate the world and create change. I felt that with my skills I could be of benefit to the cause, and awaken people of all ages to start having the conversations we need to have to change the status quo consciousness about nature and how we live with it.

Also, I want people to understand that there is a big social movement happening all over this great country and that it’s ok to be passionate about what matters to us most. I think the right response to our insecurities in life is to trust in ourselves, act from the heart-center, and care for our world because great redemption can come from our own vulnerabilities.

Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?

The ‘Australian Lifestyle’ is dependent on access to healthy food, clean water, fresh air and beautiful natural surroundings. Yet, communities are witnessing drastic changes to their land, water supply and way of life — mostly from big business and industry. In this film, you’ll be watching the stories of ordinary Australians who are trying to protect amazing places for our future generations.

How do personal and universal themes work in your film?

This is a story that asks us to respect and understand the hidden, complex values of the land, beyond the simple commercial perspective that has been conditioned into our belief system since colonisation.

To deny life support to the land and to its own people is a clear act of violence. All political power rests on this foundation – from the first dominion of kings and emperors to the elaborate systems of state land management today. What is fundamentally at stake across most of the western world right now is life - all of it! Environmental destruction endorsed by governments and carried out by the fossil fuel banking cartels is a challenge to western society, and it must be responded to as such.

Anne Kennedy — President of the Great Artesian Basin Protection Group, standing her ground to protect the Pilliga groundwater recharge area of the Great Artesian Basin from the coal seam gas industry.

How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development and production?

After three years of research and consultation, casting, filming (over four interval periods of time) and post production, we’ve emerged with an honest and cinematic film that depicts our shared Australian story.

Three script outlines were written and the final draft came close to what ended up on screen, keeping in mind that once the theme, issues and characters were detailed enough, I work from an organic place throughout the filming and post-production process to bring about rawness, truth and honesty to a story.

We also created individual short vignette films about each place, so it was a complex ride over the three years, even though the film seems simple and straight forward in its structure.

For me personally, creating this film helped me recognize deep within that our true Australian spirit is only free when we’re connected with our land.

What type of feedback have you received so far?

Nature Needs You was first released to an online audience in November 2014 where it received thousands of reactions and shares from the public from all corners of the planet.

In the main, people have expressed the fact that they have felt very inspired by the film, which is great because it’s meant to be a film that engages and activates you. Interestingly it has played as a final screening on some festival schedules, which is testament to its power of leaving you with a positive feeling, I guess.

The film has won awards over the last two years such as Best Documentary at the Faro International Short Film Festival in Portugal. The film was also awarded the Golden Butterfly for Best Environmental film at the Viva Film Festival in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

It was nominated as a finalist at the Social Impact Media Awards (SIMA) in Los Angeles and has become part of SIMA Classroom, where global learning and visual storytelling connect.

Other awards and recognitions the film has received since release are Winner: Best Cinematography, Winner: Best Film – Music, and Runner Up: Best in Festival at the 2015 Climate Change International Film Festival in Oregon. It was shortlisted at the 2016 Small Axe Radical Short Film Awards in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom and it received the People's Choice “Top Five” at the Environmental Film Festival Australia.

Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?

The feedback has been wonderful all over Europe and the United States as well as in Australia. The fun part about being a filmmaker is watching where your film finds its audiences. Sometimes it’s in unexpected places. We have had great success in all parts of Europe, especially in eastern pockets like Bosnia & Herzegovina as well as far south as Portugal – that was a major surprise. The film has so far screened in 8 states across the United States and in more than 20 official film festivals across the world over the last 24 months with a near zero distribution budget. It’s great to feel so loved in so many parts of the world and accepted into so many wonderful festivals. Moreover, it’s a real privilege to screen work alongside so many talented filmmakers.

(Left) Hedley Hoskinson — Commercial Bee Keeper (retired) and (Right) Bob Davey — President Beekeepers Lobby Group, protecting the leatherwood resource; the understory of the old growth Tasmanian rainforests that beekeepers rely on to help produce Tasmania’s local food supply.

What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?

Platforms like We Are Moving Stories are such a great initiative and resource for an independent filmmaker like myself to help spread the word and raise awareness to different parts of the world and audiences I never thought I’d be connecting with when writing the film. All filmmakers need all the support we can get so we can produce our next story for the screen.

Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?

It would be nice if a few more festival directors and journalists could push the film out there a little more. A short film distributor would be handy to make sure we get a complete lifespan out of the film.

What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?

Our genuine characters in Nature Needs You show us a living, breathing Australian spirit with valuable insights into why we should preserve the land. Our traditional culture and biological diversity are intrinsically connected, and we see this within our environment today. Passing down this knowledge is of utmost importance if we are to sustain ourselves and survive a healthy way of life. So the impact this film has on people is hopefully one at their inner-most desires of being human, because this knowledge and understanding is deep within our human hearts, if only we dare to acknowledge it.

What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?

Everyone has a connection to a specific place. How would that connection be affected if that place and community was under threat?

Would you like to add anything else?

This point in human history is a great opportunity to make a difference, and we all have the power to make an impact, but we need to get street-wise about the reasons why environmental degradation is being allowed to continue; that is, our economic system is controlling what happens and it has infiltrated most facets of our modern society (governance, education, technology, industry, health, environment, infrastructure, justice, science, media), which in effect limits human endeavor to progress in a sustainable way. My belief is that change is needed from a top-down approach, otherwise we will continue to all argue in the sandpit, while in the background our source of life continues to be destroyed. We need to be brave, leave the sandpit, and act from our human spirit, not our pockets.

What are the key creatives developing or working on now?

Mark is in the finishing stages of a social/nature feature doc about Australia’s most mysterious bird – the lyrebird, and I’m in development with another project about wisdom keepers from around the globe who present philosophical and technological ways forward, old and new, beyond the conservative norms that have been propagated.

Interview: February 2017

Maddy Dee — Volunteer, helping promote the proposed Great Forest National Park and protecting Victoria’s mountain ash forests that continue to be logged and wood chipped for wastepaper.

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We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series and music video. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela

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Nature Needs You

While industrial resource developments continue to put at risk our natural and cultural significance, people across Australia are standing their ground for nature.

Length:
9min 11sec

Director:
Mark Pearce

Producer:
Mark Pearce

Writer:
Mark Pearce

About the writer, director and producer:

Mark Pearce is a multi-award winning Australian filmmaker. His environmental shorts have won international awards throughout Europe, the United States, and Australia, and some of these same films have gone viral amassing millions of views and securing thousands of signatures for submissions and petitions to protect the places and wildlife we love. Mark is also an animal rights action campaigner, photographer and journalist.

Key cast:

Albert Wiggan, Anne Kennedy, Bob Davey, Hedley Hoskinson, Maddy Dee

Looking for producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists, Funders:

Made in association with:
The Wilderness Society Inc.

Where can I see it in the next month?

THURSDAY 16 FEB 7:30pm

Flagstaff Mountain Film Festival

Orpheum Theatre
Flagstaff, Arizona

SUNDAY 19 FEB 1:00pm
Frozen River Film Festival
Winona, Minnasotta

The film is finishing up its main festival cycle this year but hopefully it will continue to play at smaller festivals, community screenings and other environmental type events in the future.